12:30 to 6:02 - That's a record!!

That's right my friends, we have a new record. Last night Charlotte slept from 12:30 (after a bad cold, coughing-fit induced puke....but now puking is so rare it is almost a novelty) to 6:02 am. I know the time exactly because I looked right at the clock and almost had a heart attack. In case you are wondering, that is five hours and thirty-two minutes of uninterrupted sleep. I don't even have words to describe how much energy I had today. I could live on this for a week. Wait - what the hell am I saying???? Here's hoping I don't have to!!

Hooray for the acid-reflux medicine!!!!!

In other news - I have to tell you that it has been amazing to watch the sibling relationship between AJ and Charlotte come into full bloom over the last few weeks. Gone are the early days of 'lets send her back.'

The other night AJ and I were reading a book about China adoption, and it talked about the one-child policy. Pretty heady stuff for a five-year old, so I tried to explain it in the simplest way I could. She was starting to look concerned, so I said, “Honey, don’t worry about it too much because the Chinese government is starting to loosen up a bit and they are getting less and less strict about it all the time.”
Well…..then the flood gates opened. Instead of a puzzled look there were now full-fledged tears, and heart-wrenching sobs. When I finally calmed her down enough to speak the poor soul said to me, “Mommy, are they going to take Charlotte away from us?”
Oh God. Didn’t see that one coming. After much backtracking, explaining about the legal rights of adoptive parents (and siblings!), and general re-assuring things were good again. After her tears were dry and she was safely tucked in bed I realized – wow – she really loves her sister. What a poor way for me to realize that, but hey, what a great thing.

And the love is coming right back from Charlotte’s side. There is no question that she worships her big sister. If I can’t get Charlotte to eat something, I pretend to take it from AJ’s plate and then it is OK. If Charlotte is being a pain about getting dressed I get AJ to pick her clothes and somehow things are cool. When we meet AJ at the school bus Charlotte starts waving as soon as the bus comes into view. As the doors open, she starts screaming “A, A, A, A” at the top of her lungs, her whole body shaking with excitement while I struggle to hold her. It cracks the bus driver up every single day.
When AJ goes to the bathroom Charlotte follows her in and MUST be given her own piece of toilet paper so she can wipe herself just like her big sister does (of course Charlotte has her pants on though). She then proudly chucks the paper in the toilet and she and AJ flush together. Ah those cherished sister moments.

Now, as with all sisters, it isn’t all sweetness and pie. (is that a real expression, or did I just make that up?) At least once a day I hear a crescendo that goes like this: “na, na, na, NA, NA NA” from Charlotte as she and AJ wrestle over a toy of some sort. And often AJ gets herself in trouble for using her height and slight weight advantage to cheat/block/deny something to Charlotte. Charlotte for her part rips and destroys valuable artwork and books. You know, the usual sibling stuff.

In general though, things are good. The neatest thing is seeing how they play together now. The latest game is ‘tow Charlotte.’ There are various ways to do this, but the 2 most popular are in the tube and on the small rug. AJ does the heavy work, and Charlotte rides and giggles. Most times it ends with Charlotte flipping over and hitting her head, but oddly she doesn’t seem to care much. You can always shake off a good head bonk when you’re having fun, apparently.

So that’s all the news from here. There won’t be a lot of photos for a while because AJ dropped the camera the other day and broke it. Never fear though. As I rounded the corner to find out what made the loud crash she looked at me with those big saucer ‘I’m so guilty/in trouble right now’ eyes and said, “Um, Mommy. It’s OK. We’re seeing Santa tomorrow, right? I’ll ask him to bring you a new camera.”

Yea for Santa.